Home Secretary Anil Goswami, one of the few holdovers in the Modi administration from the United Progressive Alliance era, resigned from his post late on Wednesday after being told to quit or be sacked amid allegations that he had tried to influence a CBI investigation. He has been replaced by Rural Development Secretary LC Goyal.
In a late night order, the government said it had accepted “the request of Anil Goswami for voluntarily retiring from service with immediate effect“ and his term stood curtailed.
Goswami's ouster, the first time a senior bureaucrat has been forced to quit by the government for questionable conduct, was a foregone conclusion after his boss and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh took the view that his continuance was “untenable“ because he tried to influence CBI in the sensitive and high-profile Saradha chit fund scam investigation.
Sources said Goswami, a 1978 batch officer of the Jammu & Kashmir cadre, had admitted to the home minister that he had leaned on CBI to try and stop the arrest of Saradha scam accused and former Congress minister Matang Sinh last week. They said Goswami had told the home minister in a telephone call on Tuesday evening from Jammu and again in person on Wednesday during an hour-long meeting in North Block that he had not initiated the call to CBI but Sinh had called him and handed over the phone to a CBI officer. The call was recorded as Sinh's phone was under CBI surveillance.
Singh then met CBI Director Anil Sinha separately for half-an-hour, who informed the home minister that the investigating agency had submitted a report to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Goswami was also summoned to PMO on Wednesday evening to explain his stand. Singh had briefed the prime minister of the developments on Tuesday night. Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi also decided that Goswami could not be allowed to continue and the home secretary tendered his resignation after visiting PMO.
Goswami's successor Goyal, a 1979 batch officer of Kerala cadre, has prior experience in the home ministry where he served as a joint secretary in its internal security division between 2002 and 2007. This episode comes as an unwelcome distraction for the BJP-led central government at a time senior ministers are engaged in pulling out all stops to try and ensure the party's victory in this week's Delhi elections.
Last week, the government had curtailed the term of Sujatha Singh to re move her from the foreign secretary's post although she had tenure until the end of July as part of a two-year fixed post. Goswami, who has already technically retired as he is more than 60 years old, too had a fixed two-year tenure that runs until June 30. He was appointed to the post by former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.
Government sources, meanwhile, revealed that Singh had been “warned“ soon after he became the home minister about Goswami's close association with Matang Sinh. But Goswami was still among the few bureaucrats who managed to survive a large-scale reshuffle that saw several UPA-appointed officials transferred from their posts in the Modi government.
Goswami, these sources said, had told Rajnath Singh in the early days of the government that while he had been close to Congress ministers, especially Ghulam Nabi Azad and Shinde, he would work dutifully for the new administration and follow orders. But they said it was also no longer possible for the government to persist with him because he had tried to save an accused involved in the Saradha scam.
